


safe again.

by stardustgirl



Series: what should’ve been (& what was) [4]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Aftermath - Chuck Wendig, Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Alexa - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And angst, Babysitting, Bittersweet, Chopper Gets Old, Droids Get Old Too, Ezra Bridger Dies, F/M, First Order, Fluff, Force-Sensitive Jacen Syndulla, Hera Syndulla Needs A Hug, I suppose, Is It A Thing In This?, Jacen Syndulla is a Sweetheart, Kanan 2: the daddening, Kanan Jarrus Lives, Kanan Jarrus Needs a Hug, Luke's Jedi Temple, Mama Hera Syndulla, Overprotective Kanan Jarrus, Parental Kanan Jarrus, Post-Endor, Post-First Galactic Civil War, Post-War, RIP Ezra Bridger, Rise of the First Order, SO SAD, Sighted Kanan Jarrus, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Time to Cry, Zeb & Kallus?, after the war, but mostly just for the timeline, play despacito, tagged it as Aftermath, this is so sad, who knows - Freeform, you will be missed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-18
Packaged: 2019-09-21 19:08:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17048921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: The kid's parents are taking a much-needed break, Zeb and Kallus are investigating some rumors, and Chopper can't be trusted to watch him alone.  So she helps.





	safe again.

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [what should’ve been (& what was); s p e c t r e s .](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16846858) by [stardustgirl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl). 



> This stems from the Happy!Kanan (which I then angst-ified) AU that my friend helped me with (she provided happiness and I provided angst).
> 
> I apologize for everything.

As soon as the door shut, the green-haired child whirled to Sabine, eyes sparkling.

“Playtime!” he cried excitedly, prompting a soft laugh from the Mandalorian.

“Alright, alright, what do you want to do first?”

“Mmmmmmm Loth-wolf ride!” he yelled, jumping onto the the couch only to jump off again.  She chuckled.

“Alright Jace, hop up on the couch again and—”

“From Chopper!”

She froze, glancing at the ancient droid and raising an eyebrow.  “From that old rustbucket?” she questioned, trying to make light of the situation.  The droid grumbled, rolling forward and nudging the back of her leg.

“Yeahyeahyeah!” Jacen answered enthusiastically.  He dashed over to the droid, hugging the old astromech tightly before clambering onto it and standing on the backs of Chopper’s bearings.  He clung tightly to the front edge of the droid’s dome, pointing forward and giggling excitedly. “Onward!”

She raised an armored hand, using it to muffle a soft chuckle as the droid rolled forward slowly.  It was fast enough for Jacen, who yelled excitedly and began rambling something about X-wings against TIE fighters.  Still, something struck her hard when she realized the droid was only rolling about three feet a minute.

The Chopper  _ she _ had known would’ve already been halfway across the front room by now, shrieking about having to give another Jedi brat a ride that was so arduous and labor-intensive he would surely need an oil bath afterwards.

The droid that barely moved across the floor seemed nothing like Chopper.

She watched the pair in amused silence, Jacen continuing to shout encouragement, and sighed contentedly.  Kanan and Hera deserved the night out, and Zeb and Kallus were talking to another informant who, it was said, knew something about the rumors going around about the supposed “new order” that was forming out in the Unknown Regions.  Personally, Sabine thought it was all a load of bantha poodoo, but Hera and Kallus both seemed to put a certain degree of credence to the stories, so she humored them.

Maybe part of it was that she just didn’t  _ want _ it to be true.

Sighing, she glanced over at Jacen and Chopper, noticing with more amusement that Jacen had somehow convinced the astromech to wave one of those New Republic flags they handed out liberally during the Festival of Liberation.  She was only vaguely surprised that the boy had held onto it (the most recent celebration had been several months prior), but then again, he  _ was _ Hera’s child.  As was--

No.  Depa- Depa wasn’t here.  Nor had she ever been. The sooner she could stop remembering her, the better.

She glanced down as Chopper rolled by, Jacen tunelessly singing the anthem of the New Republic.  She didn’t have the heart to tell him just how off-key he was; he was happy, and that was all that mattered.

Finally he abruptly jumped off of Chopper and walked over, grinning widely.  “Tell me a story about Ezra!”

Her smile slipped for a moment before she nodded, forcing her smile to widen.  “Sure, kid. Let’s sit on the couch.”

“Okay!”  He dashed over and jumped up as she followed more slowly.  He glanced to Chopper. “Chop, c’mere! ‘Bine’s gonna tell us a story about Ezra!”

“Chopper probably knows all the stories I’ll tell about Ezra,” she chuckled, sitting down and placing her helmet on the floor.  “He was there for most of them. Let’s let him have a break right now, okay?”

The droid grumbled an agreement, rolling away before Jacen could argue further.  Sabine patted the couch cushion next to her and Jacen shuffled closer, grinning up at her.

“What kind of story do you want to hear this time, Jace?”

“Hmm,” he thought hard for a long moment and she stifled a laugh.  “I wanna hear...about his Jedi training!” She froze. The boy continued.  “Master Luke said Daddy said that Ezra was one of the bestest Jedi around!”

She nodded slowly.  “I- I can see why he would say that,” she started.

“What about you, Aunt ‘Bine?”  She froze again. “What do you think?”

“Think about what, Jace?”

“Do you think Ezra was one of the bestest Jedi?”

A bitter smile traced her lips as she pursed them, humming in thought before answering.  “Ezra was a great Jedi. I think he would’ve really liked you.”

Jacen beamed, clambering onto her lap and hugging her.  “I love you Aunt ‘Bine!” he announced loudly.

She laughed softly, hugging him back and patting his back.  “I love you too, Jace.”

He pulled back, holding her shoulders at arm’s length as his expression turned serious.  “Tell me a story about Ezra, when he did a Jedi thing like Master Luke does whenever he and Daddy are together.”

She thought for a moment, and then a slow smile spread across her face as a memory surfaced.  “Well, when we first brought Ezra on the  _ Ghost, _ your father decided to train him, like how he trains you, only Ezra was his first Padawan so he didn’t know what to expect and he had some... _ questionable _ training methods.”  She stifled a laugh before continuing.  “And one day, K- your father decided they were going to work on focus, so Hera flew the  _ Ghost _ way up high….”

* * *

By the time Hera and Kanan came back, Jacen was curled up on a corner of the couch, sound asleep with an X-wing patterned blanket covering him.  Sabine dozed on the armchair nearby, head dipping to her chest until a quiet knock on the door jolted her awake.

Rubbing her eyes, she got up and checked who it was, blaster drawn until she recognized Kanan.  Palming the door open, she holstered her blaster and whispered, “He’s asleep. And Chopper powered off an hour ago, said he needed to recharge.”

Kanan nodded, stepping to the side and crossing his arms as Hera entered behind him.  Sabine shut the door, locking it again before gesturing to the kitchen. The pair followed her into it and she leaned against a counter, subconsciously mimicking Kanan and crossing her arms as well.

“You two look awfully serious.  Did something happen?” she jokingly asked finally, breaking the silence.  Kanan cleared his throat and glanced at Hera.

“We...got a comm,” the pilot began slowly.  Sabine raised an eyebrow.

“Is...that a bad thing?”

“No,” Hera responded quickly, shaking her head.  “It’s just…” she trailed off into a sigh, glancing up at her husband as he cleared his throat again.  When he spoke, his voice was oddly hollow.

“It was from Luke.  He- he offered to train Jacen.”

The Mandalorian’s eyebrow quirked back up in surprise.  “But I thought  _ you _ were training him.”

“I am.”  A pause, the Jedi dropping his gaze.  “I was.”

“You’re not seriously thinking of giving him to Luke, are you?!” she questioned incredulously, looking between the pair.  Both avoided her gaze. “The guy just kriffing  _ disappeared _ for a solid three cycles and he’s only been back a couple of months!  I’m surprised Jacen remembers him as much as he does!”

“Sabine, please understand.”  It was Hera who spoke, her normally clear, firm voice quiet and wavering.  “It’s not that we want to. It’s for his own good.”

“‘For his own good?!’  You two aren’t any better than my own  _ mother! _ ”  She scoffed, pushing away from the counter and heading out of the room.

“Sabine.”  The quiet but firm voice of Kanan stopped her.  She didn’t turn back to look at them as the Jedi addressed her.  “Luke and I have been talking about this, for a while now. While the war was still going on.  He’s opening up an Academy to train the kids. Like the Temple.” She may have been mistaken, but she would have sworn she could detect a faint waver in his voice as he continued.  “It’ll keep him safe.”  _ Safer from this “new order,” whatever that is.  Safer from the pro-Imperialists who still lurk, especially out here, away from Chandrila.  Safer than we’d ever be able to keep him. _

She swallowed, turning back slowly and trying to ignore the waver of her own voice and the moisture in her eyes as she spoke.  “And you think we’re not capable of that? That  _ I’m _ not capable of that?  I will fight for Jacen until my  _ last breath, _ but I will  _ not _ let him be sent away.  We wouldn’t know what’s going on.  What if something happens? Luke can’t truly keep them all safe unless he cuts off all communication with the rest of us.”   _ I don’t want to go through another period where the Jedi and all like them are all forced into hiding.  I don’t want him to grow up how you and Ezra did. _

“Sabine, we’re not losing someone else.”  Kanan’s voice was hoarse, breaking subtly, and she hated it.

“We may as well be if you send him away like that.”

First Ezra, then Depa, and now Jacen.  And that wasn’t even half of the losses they’d experienced.

“Sabine, Kallus commed, too.”  She only half-turned to Hera, keeping the majority of her attention on Kanan, who remained infuriatingly calm about the whole matter.

“What did he say?” she asked brokenly.

“He said the rumors are true.  There’s- there’s  _ something _ out there.”

Her breath caught in her throat.  So this was why….

“Sending him with Luke is the only way to protect him,” Kanan pressed quietly.  “Luke’s already got somewhere to take them, an old Jedi Temple that’s not on any of the starcharts most of us use.  He promised me they’ll be safe there.”

“And what about you?” she whispered.

“I’m staying to fight,” he replied firmly, eyes hardening.  “And I won’t stop until it’s safe for him to come back again.”

“None of us will,” Hera added.  “The fight hasn’t started yet, and we still don’t know exactly what we’re up against, and we won’t until Kallus and Zeb get back from recon.  But when we do….”

Sabine’s voice hardened as her eyes narrowed.  “The Empire couldn’t stop us. Neither can this.”

She would fight for his future.  They all would.

And he would be safe, none the wiser while he grew up in another Temple.  Not ideal, but safe. And that was all that mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> hahhhhhhhh


End file.
